Work Text:
Powder cries out as she slams into a dirty wall, crashing onto an even dirtier floor, panting as her ears pop and the whoosh of bright light around her disappears all at once. She struggles to her feet, panting, putting the glowing tube into her satchel, as she brushes herself off. She takes a couple stumbling steps out of the alleyway, looking around the dingy and run-down street.
She knows these buildings, even with the windows boarded up and doorways sagging. She knows these roads, even broken and pitted with holes. She knows this city, even if she doesn’t know this world.
She did it. She did it.
It was just like Ekko described it. He wasn’t her Ekko, but he talked about this world. He talked about everything that was going wrong, how different it was, how he had to get back to help save everyone he loved.
He had to get back to save Vi.
Her sister was alive in this world. The mural Ekko drew of her back in her world drew Powder to it like a butterfly to a flame. She stared at the images of her sister, looking at the curve of her jaw, the scar on her eyebrow, the ring through her nose, the tattoo under her eye.
Her name on her face was a little on the nose, and Powder wonders if she teased her sister for it in this universe like she would’ve if her Vi ever got that tattoo.
Her Vi never had the chance.
Powder pulls her jacket on tighter, clinging to her bag, as she begins to walk towards the bridge. She keeps looking around for a familiar face, anyone she knows, but the people she walks by keep their heads down and focus on working. Lots of them have blue hair, just like hers, and she can see that its dyed.
Why?
Sunlight breaks through a gap in the buildings, filtering through layers of grime, illuminating the wall behind her. It’s a massive painting, five times her height, of a girl with blue hair holding a flag centered in light. Powder tilts her head as she stares, lips parting as an uncanny similarity makes her feel… uncomfortable.
That’s her. It has to be.
Ekko didn’t tell her anything about this world’s version of her. He acted scared when they first interreacted, and avoided the questions like the plague when she pressed for more. Why? She looks like a badass here!
She smiles at herself and continues on her way, a little brighter, as she walks across the bridge.
Powder isn’t sure how to find Vi. Ekko hadn’t said too much about where she is, but why would he? There wouldn’t be a world in which this is possible, not without the Hextech, a name Powder found kind of pretentious, but she did it from fragments, shattered particles that killed her sister.
Powder feels emotions well up in her throat, but she clears it as she sees a couple of enforcers patrolling nearby.
Powder typically avoids them on principle, but she doesn’t have much of a shot just walking around and hoping to run into Vi in the entire city.
“Hi, can you help me?” Powder asks, holding onto her satchel.
The enforcers stop, eyes flicking to her bag, before back to her.
“What can we do for you?” one of the men asks.
“I’m looking for someone,” Powder says, rocking on her toes a little, “her name is Vi? Pink hair, kind of has an attitude problem, scowls a lot?”
The two men look at each other, chuckling and shaking their heads.
“Don’t let the sheriff hear you talking like that,” one of them teases her.
“What do you mean?” Powder asks, perplexed.
“You know.. you look familiar,” the other man says, and Powder stiffens just a little, “what did you say your name was?”
Powder feels an uneasiness in her gut, an instinct most people have around enforcers, and she laughs.
“Um, Matilda?” Powder lies, the name just jumping into her mind, “I’m kind of like her family.”
“Family, huh? That’s what it is, you look just like Jinx.”
Jinx?
“Oh, I get that a lot,” Powder goes with it, “do you know where I can find Vi?”
The men give her instructions to an apartment complex, telling her to ring the lobby when she gets there to get someone to let her up. The level of security surprises her, Vi would never be caught dead in this part of town.
A very, very unfortunate choice of words in her own mind, and she feels a slight headache pop in against her temple, making the sunlight too bright and the voices around her just a little too loud. She shakes it off, blinking rapidly, as she focuses on her next goal.
The building is gorgeous.
“Damn, sis,” Powder says to herself, walking around the sides of it, “living large Topside? It’s like I don’t even know you anymore.”
Powder knows this Vi won’t be her Vi. The sister she lost can’t be so simply replaced, but the idea of seeing any version of her, even for a little while, kept her up for countless nights. She has never worked harder on a project in her life, driven by pure desperation for months until she got to this point, Now, staring at the building where her sister lives, it’s beginning to feel too real.
She waits by the backdoor, pulling a book from her bag to pretend to read. The door requires a keycard, and Powder didn’t want to test her luck breaking in with a camera trained on the entrance. She’s beginning to get worried as the sun sets, but the lights on the still-busy streets illuminate everything like daylight. Eventually, a couple walks up. Powder puts down her book, and pretends to look relieved.
“Thank god,” Powder laughs as they walk closer, “do you think you could let me in? I left my keycard in my sis-my cousin’s apartment when I went to the library, and she’s out at work for forever. She already got mad at me because I called her last time I did this, and I don’t want to be more annoying. She knows the sheriff and I don’t want to keep getting her in trouble with her boss-“
“Her boss?” one of the woman says, slightly perplexed, “you’re talking about Vi?’
“Yes! I’m her cousin.”
“Does Vi refer to Caitlyn as her boss?” the other woman piped up, eyes sparking with interest.
Who’s Caitlyn?
“No-“ Powder backpedals, “I do- it…. Um…”
“Oh, I bet that annoys her,” the first woman says to the other, laughing, “yes, of course, come with us. You’ll need a swipe in the elevator to get to their floor as well.”
Powder grins in genuine relief, following the women into the building.
“So… my cousin doesn’t really tell me much about her life,” Powder pushes her luck as they walk into the elevator, watching the women push two different floors, “what else do you know about her?”
“Not much,” the second woman sounds almost regretful, “she really keeps to herself. She works occasionally, but more of a private investigator than an enforcer.”
Vi is an enforcer here? After… everything?
Powder holds her bag tighter, shaking her head.
“Yeah, that was a surprise,” Powder laughs humorlessly, the elevator dinging, and the woman don’t make a move to get out, “bye!”
Powder gets off the elevator, looking around the empty hallway. She rustles around in her bag for the lockpicking kit she stole from Mylo, but he’ll get over it.
Powder knocks on the doors first, but it’s the middle of the work day. Only one person answers, and she excuses that easily enough with being lost. They’re not sure where Vi lives when she asks, so Powder goes back to her previous plan of breaking in and looking for hints of her sister.
Five attempts later, Powder is contemplating just sitting down in the hallway and waiting. The risk of security seeing her face on the tapes and knowing she doesn’t live here keeps her motivated.
Her brief routine of walking in, checking for mail, checking for pictures, feels inadequate. She’s unsure of every place she walks in to, looking for what she can, but knowing she could be overlooking something so easily.
On her sixth apartment, despite not finding mail or photos in the entryway, she lingers. Powder closes the door behind her and walks a little further in to the apartment, peeking around corners, before she stills.
There’s a heavyweight bag hanging in what looks like a home gym.
She knows it’s not an uncommon thing, but something in her chest knows this is for Vi. Powder walks into the room, fingers dragging over the worn leather, looking around the well-stocked home gym. This has to be her apartment.
Powder walks back out to the living room, staring up at the wall of bookshelves that stretch from floor to ceiling. The décor isn’t nearly as… butch as Powder expected. It’s elegant, classy, and it looks expensive.
“I didn’t know private investigators made so much,” Powder murmurs to herself, fingers dragging over the back of a very plush couch.
She’s about to look in the fridge, wondering what kind of food her sister likes now, when she hears keys in the door. Powder freezes, caught, panic making her pulse race as she realizes she has no idea what to say, or do, when the door pushes open.
Powder knew she was older, she even knew what Ekko drew of her, but seeing her in person is nothing like that.
She’s huge. Her shoulders are broad, her hair is longer, her jaw is more square. Powder doesn’t move as Vi takes off her shoes, still looking down, but her breath hitches when their eyes meet. They’re the same. They’re her sister’s eyes.
“Vi-“
Powder yelps as she’s tackled, hand on her throat as she’s pinned to the floor. Her eyes widen and she flails, punching and pushing anywhere she can reach, gasping to catch the air that was knocked from her lungs. Vi’s eyes are cold, narrowed, full of anger. The scar on her lip curls her snarl up even higher.
She still has freckles.
“V-Vi-“ Powder croaks, grabbing for the wrist, unable to move it from her throat, “please-“
“Who are you?” Vi demands, even though Powder sees her eyes waiver, “how the fuck did you get in?”
“I-you know me-“ Powder feels the hand loosen on her neck, but still holding her down, “it’s me-“
Vi’s hand goes slack, breath stuttering as she pulls back.
“No, you’re not,” Vi says, tense, ready to strike, “you’re not her. Who are you?”
There’s a fear in Vi’s eyes, confusion, but more than that, there’s recognition.
Powder slowly sits up, rubbing her throat, as Vi stands.
“You know it’s me,” Powder says quietly, “just like I know it’s you. We’ll always be sisters, no matter-“
Powder is pushed back onto the ground, Vi crashing down on top of her. Vi’s arms wrap around her, one cradling the back of her head in a gesture that she remembers and has craved every day for far too long. Powder’s eyes fill with tears as she holds Vi, burying her face against her shoulder. She only holds her tighter when she feels Vi’s chest beginning to shake with tears of her own.
Vi pulls back to kneeling, bringing Powder with her, as Vi cups her face, looking her over for what feels like minutes.
“Is there something on my face?” Powder jokes, and Vi sniffles, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.
“What… what is this?” Vi asks her, voice breaking, “I have to be dreaming- you can’t be real.”
“Did Ekko say anything?”
“Ekko?” Vi repeats, confused, “not- what? About what?”
Powder stands up, taking her sister’s hand, leading her to the couch to sit down with her. It’s unreal, even for Powder, and Vi holds her hand like she’s terrified she’s going to disappear.
“Ekko used Hextech to accidentally kind of travel between dimensions,” Powder begins to try and explain, “it’s some really amazing science and magic shit, it took me forever to figure out, but he came to my world, a different world, and he said he knew you. I had to come here and find you, I needed to see you.”
Vi stares at her like she’s completely insane, but a credit to her resilience, she just nods and seems to accept it.
“Another world,” Vi says, “I’m gonna kill little man for not telling me.”
Powder laughs, thinking of the other Ekko, and his… request before their kiss.
What was she like here that they never fell in love? Why did Vi attack her like that?
“Why… why did you need to see me?” Vi asks, “does your version of me suck that much?”
Powder stills, and she looks away. Vi’s hand tightens in hers.
“What happened?”
Powder bites her lip, looking at Vi through near tears, but she holds them back. Telling her sister how she died is… insane.
“We were pulling a job,” Powder says, “and something exploded. You died… you died instantly. You and another girl, some Piltie, who was outside the door or something. We never found out what caused it, but… you were fifteen.”
Vi’s eyes harden, and Powder’s breathing doesn’t get any easier.
“You watched me die?”
There’s an unspeakable grief in Vi’s voice, a guilt. Powder stares at her in amazement. Even with the news of her other version’s death, Vi still feels responsible for Powder seeing her dead. Powder jumps forward, hugging Vi again, memories of their childhood replaying. She was always so protective, she fought so hard for them, for all of them. Vi blocked the explosion from Powder. She jumped in front of her.
“You died protecting me,” Powder’s throat is tight, “you died… and I couldn’t…”
Vi’s finger’s run through the back of her hair, and Powder doesn’t even mind that some of her hair comes out of the two buns.
“I’m so sorry,” Vi sniffles, “I tried- I’m glad I got it right once-“
“What?!” Powder leans back all at once, shocked, hurt, “got it right?! Violet- I never wanted you to do that- there was a time- I hated you for dying for me- you left me alone- and it was my fault-“
“No,” Vi takes her face again, both hands holding her so gently, “any version of me wants to protect and keep every version of you safe.”
Powder believes her, she knows that’s true in every fiber of her being.
“What…. What do you mean you got it right once?”
Vi’s lip begins to quiver. People always get Vi so wrong. She was strong because she was scared. She was brave because she was emotional. She was loud because she felt everything so, so deeply.’
“I failed you, here,” Vi tells her, “I couldn’t save you…”
Powder can only feel relief. She would’ve died for her Vi for her to live. Whatever happened, whatever the situation, she knows it was between the two of them. She made the right choice.
“You didn’t fail me, sis,” Powder holds her cheek, thumb rubbing over her tattoo, “trust me when I talk about me. I don’t regret it.”
Tears seep from Vi’s eyes, her breath trembling as she gears up to argue, to apologize.
“Don’t,” Powder warns her, “or I’ll make fun of your tattoo.”
The joke catches Vi off-guard, and it’s funny to watch her go from teary to shocked in seconds. Powder manages a smile, and VI can’t help but smile back.
They both look when the door opens.
“Violet, would you mind starting dinner? I have one more report I meant to finish-“
A tall woman stands in the doorway, halfway through taking off one of her boots, when she see them both. She straightens and makes a strange gesture towards her back, as if reaching for something, but there’s nothing there.
“Cait,” Vi stands up, blocking Powder, so she just leans around her to look at the woman curiously, “this is gonna sound crazy- but this is Powder.”
Powder waves at the stranger, Cait, apparently, watching as the color drains from her face, and her lips part.
“Violet, get away from her,” Cait says, voice level, beginning to reach for her hip.
Powder takes the edge of Vi’s shirt, holding on cautiously, and Vi reaches back to hold her behind her.
“What are you doing-“
“I don’t know what you’ve told her,” Caitlyn’s voice is steel, hand firmly on what Powder is now certain is a gun, “but whatever game you’re trying to play won’t work. Get away from her.”
“Vi…”
Vi doesn’t move, and Powder has a terrifying thought of losing her sister twice. Who is this woman who talked to Vi like that? She remembers the women thought it was funny when she referred to Caitlyn as Vi’s boss, and the eforcers she met said the sherriff wouldn’t like her talking about Vi.
“You’re… dating the Sheriff?”
Despite the life and death situation this is quickly becoming, that’s still pretty funny.
“Yes- hold on- oh don’t you fucking laugh at that-“ Vi says over her shoulder, half-groaning, before turning back to Caitlyn.
“Put the gun on the counter and take a seat. We can talk, but no weapons, alright? She’s not armed.”
Caitlyn stares at Vi, visible eye narrowed, and Powder wonders if this is how they always are. Caitlyn unholsters her pistol and puts it on the counter, walking over slowly, eyeing Powder like she’s going to explode.
“This isn’t possible,” Caitlyn says, keeping her distance, “even if you are who you claim to be, you can’t be her.”
“Because she’s dead, right?” Powder asks, making Vi tense, “sorry- I mean, I’m dead, ouch, not better, sorry, sis,” Powder pats Vi on the shoulder before looking at Caitlyn.
She looks so familiar for some reason, a distant memory in a time so awash with grief that she can’t pull the face clearly. Maybe it was from a newspaper or something? An obituary?
“Ekko should’ve told you,” Powder is happy to blame her different universe boyfriend for this one, “he traveled to a different universe, my universe, and lived there for a while. He said he used Hextech to do it, something with the magic of it, brought him to my world before he used the same science to come back.”
“Another world?” Caitlyn says, skeptical, arms crossed, “that’s completely ridiculous.”
“…Cait… we went to war with a bunch of creepy hive-mind creatures that were being controlled by a guy who basically became god,” Vi tells Caitlyn, stupefying Powder, “is another world so far fetched?”
“Why are you here, then?” Caitlyn changes her questions, “surely if you could use Hextech to travel to different worlds, and you have a reason to be here, you would have done it already.”
“There’s no such thing as Hextech in my world,” Powder says, “what I used to get here… I think it must have been what was supposed to be Hextech. It’s a bunch of crystal fragments, they exploded, and I collected them and was waiting to see if I could do anything with them.”
“Exploded?” Caitlyn asks, arms loosening as she thinks. It’s quiet for a long moment.
“Why are you here?” Caitlyn asks.
Powder looks up at Vi, and Vi takes a breath.
“She came to find me,” Vi says, chin tilted, “I died in her world, and she’s been trying to find a way here since Ekko jumped between the two.”
Caitlyn’s eye widens and she looks between Powder and her sister, hand clenching into a fist. Her face drops into something more vulnerable, a flash of panic as she looks at Vi, and Powder takes a small step back.
That face. She’s the Piltover girl who died with Vi.
Powder’s heart races in her chest, feeling both out of place and at home with the two dead girls. Powder never saw Caitlyn’s body, she was dragged out of the building kicking and screaming, but she remembers the paper now, the picture of her and Vi side by side.
“Powder?”
Powder looks up, realizing she’s nearly hyperventilating, hand over her chest as both Vi and Caitlyn look at her with a shared concern.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Powder shakes her head, forcing her hand to her side, “I… it’s weird to see you alive is all,” Powder half-laughs, trying not to look between the both of them, “you’re still fifteen to me, you know?”
Vi looks so heartbroken that she almost wants to take it back.
“I get it, Pow,” Vi says, and Powder’s knees nearly buckle, “I’m not the only one that changed between us.”
Caitlyn excuses herself for a little while as Vi and Powder talk. They are both hesitant to ask questions, and both hesitant to share, but eventually it falls into conversation. Powder starts, talking about Vi’s death, the effect it had on Vander, on Silco, on… everyone. She talks about science competitions, about Mylo and Claggor, about Ekko.
With most of the names she brings up, Vi flinches. Either her lips turn down or her nose wrinkles, and a slow dread slowly seeps into her.
“So… how are things here? You mentioned fighting… hive-mind creatures?” Powder asks.
“It… I have no idea where to start,” Vi admits, pushing hair out of her face.
“What about the tattoos?” Powder asks, reaching for her arm, twisting it to see the back, “they’re pretty cool.”
“Yeah, I got them in jail,” Vi says plainly, clearly deciding on a launching point.
“Jail?! You got caught?!”
“Not exactly….”
Powder can tell Vi is carefully choosing words as she launches into her own story, her own history. They were able to pinpoint exactly where their lives diverged, but the more Vi talks, the less she says. She doesn’t mention Vander, Silco, Mylo, or Claggor at all. Benzo is left off the list too, and Powder is beginning to get anxious as she talks about her time in jail more than anything else.
Vi brightens when she talks about Caitlyn, but there are years-long gaps in her story.
“What about me?” Powder asks, “how did I die?”
Vi’s jaw clenches, looking down at her hands.
“I couldn’t hold on to you,” Vi says, turning them over as if she could find the fault, the weakness, she was searching for, “I had you, you were being pulled down… and you took the power source from my hand and I dropped you.”
“Power source?”
“I had these gauntlets, Hextech powered, and you were being pulled down by something too heavy for me to hold. I tried- it wasn’t enough-“
“It wasn’t her fault.”
They both look up as Caitlyn returns, leaning on the doorframe.
“It was a miracle she survived,” Caitlyn says, “that day…”
Powder wonders if Caitlyn knows she rubs under her eyepatch when she thinks like this. Vi stands up and takes her hand away from it, kissing her knuckles as if on reflex before looking at Powder like she’s doing something she shouldn’t.
Vi grew up. She got to grow up. She went through hell and came out the other side, here, with a partner who clearly loves her. Powder can’t help but smile, heart somehow healing and breaking so much for her own sister, the one who never got to experience any of it.
“You don’t want to tell me anything else about other me, do you?” Powder asks her outright, and Vi sighs.
“I can’t,” Vi says carefully, “the life you have, the people you have in it, it’s important. Knowing what happened here, who did what, the different paths they took… It can only hurt you, Pow.”
“They’re all dead here, aren’t they?” Powder asks, “our family?”
Vi nods slowly, and Caitlyn squeezes her hand.
“It’s just me,” Vi’s voice is weak, fragile, and Powder so badly wants to bring her home.
She could. Vi could leave and come with her. They’d explain it, it’d be fine. Vander would be so happy, Mylo and Claggor. Everyone misses her so much, it’d be perfect!
Powder thinks about the magic in her bag, how even when she landed, it was flickering.
This is a round-trip only. The energy it’ll take to get back will exhaust the crystal, something Powder has tested on smaller fragments, and there will be no going back if things end badly. It was a one in a billion chance that she’s here at all, taking people out of their universes permanently… Powder can’t imagine the chaos that would cause.
“I’m sorry,” Powder says, walking over to both Vi and Caitlyn, hugging them both, “for… everything.”
Vi hugs her back immediately. Caitlyn takes a moment, but eventually her arms go around her too.
It’s so fragile, and Powder wonders if she did more harm than good by coming here at all. It was a selfish want to see Vi, to know her, and she knows she’ll be haunted by this meeting for the rest of her life. That same haunted expression is reflected in her sister’s eyes now, and Powder steps away.
“You can stay,” Vi says, hope undercutting her tone even though she seems to know the answer as certainly as Powder does.
“I can’t,” the grief is there, “the connection I have between our worlds is…. Flimsy. I have to get back, or I could get stuck here, and messing with the universe like that would be a catastrophe. The balance, adding energy or matter into what’s essentially a closed system… I could go on.”
“Don’t,” Vi advises, and Powder laughs, shrugging.
“Speaking of fragile…” Powder checks her watch, heart sinking to see she’s already pushing the self-imposed time limit of stability, “I think that’s my cue.”
Vi’s face flashes with panic, and Caitlyn puts an arm around her waist.
“Just like that?” Vi asks, tears welling in her eyes.
“Just like that, sis,” Powder clears her throat, taking a deep breath as she tries to stand up a little straighter, “it’s been real.”
Vi walks towards her, hugging her like she always did. Powder melts into that hold, secure, safe as she has ever felt, trying to memorize the feel of Vi’s shoulders under her hands, the smell of her hair.
“Stay safe out there, Pow,” Vi says.
“You too,” Powder nods, reluctantly letting go.
Vi steps back as Powder reaches for her bag, pulling out the traveling device she created. She flips the switch, and the crystal particles whir to life.
“I love you,” Vi says as if it’s bursting from her throat.
“I love you too.”
Powder closes her eyes and turns the lever, launching herself into darkness.
Power slams into the ground, again, gasping as the device in her hand dissolves into dust. She’s flat on her back, gasping for air, before a hand takes hers.
“Breathe- Powder, breathe-“ Ekko tells her, eyes filled with panic as he clasps her hand, other holding her face.
Powder listens the best she can, very tired of being thrown around, and she slowly sits up. Ekko takes her wrist and feels for her pulse, counting it, as she continues to breathe and get her bearings. She’s exactly where she left from, and a glance at the clock on the wall confuses the hell out of her.
“…two seconds?”
“Yeah,” Ekko says, “you were here, then gone, and then suddenly back. Did it work?”
Powder nods, pulling herself up to Ekko, arms around his shoulders, shivering with trans-universal travel and the tears that she knows won’t stop for a lifetime.
“She’s happy,” Powder says thickly, “well, not really, she’s really sad, but she’s with someone, and she’s going to be okay, I think.”
Ekko holds her tight, pulling her onto his lap as she sags against him.
“Was it what you wanted?” Ekko asks.
Powder laughs and shrugs, shaking her head and then nodding.
“I got to see her alive,” Powder says, “I got to see her older than me. She’s covered in tattoos and scars and piercings. She’s funny, she’s in love with a sheriff, she misses me too.”
Ekko squeezes her tighter, and Powder realizes she revealed she died in that other universe. She runs her nails gently against the short hair at the base of his head, feeling the goosebumps as he relaxes a little.
“I’m glad you got to talk to her,” Ekko says, kissing the top of her head.
Powder smiles against his shoulder, nodding before she stands up. She gives him her hand, helping him to his feet too, fingers tangling together as they head out.
“Are you going to tell anyone?” Ekko asks, stopping just outside the bar.
“No,” Powder says quietly, “It’ll just hurt. She said that things were different, that most of them were… dead. They don’t need to know that.
Ekko nods, squeezing her hand, before pushing open the doors to the familiar bar.
The sounds, the sights, the people, the movements are all familiar, but Powder feels slightly away from it now. She talked to two ghosts today, and now she’s surrounded by the same ghosts of another world.
Maybe it was a mistake to jump between, to see what could have been. Powder has always been too curious for her own good, and knowledge isn’t always just a blessing.
She closes her eyes for a moment, and feels Vi’s arms around her again. She smiles and nods to herself, rejoining the world of her living.